Latin Literature
We meet: Monthly, usually on Thursday or Friday afternoons, depending on members' availability, in a members' home.
Coordinator: Sally Dickens
Our Activities: We are a group of some half-dozen souls who, for reasons that seem strange to most other people, enjoy getting to grips with the elegance, power and precision of the Latin language, especially its poetry. We all have a reasonable knowledge of Latin: some have had a proper classical education, some have taught it, but we are interested in different aspects of the works we study: for some, it is the rhythms and imagery of the verse, others enjoy working out the grammatical constructions or trying to wrestle the words into a translation that actually sounds like English! Two of our members are studying Latin as part of their Open University course. We have looked at works by Ovid, Horace, Virgil and Catullus, but we have also dabbled in works by Tibullus, a lesser-known poet. We have ventured into prose, reading some of Cicero’s vituperations against Catiline and even a couple of scenes from Plautus’ best-known play, “Pseudolus” (shades of Frankie Howerd’s role as Lurcio in “Up Pompeii”.)
There may be vacancies so please enquire using the link on this page to send me an email.